Speaker 1: Ah, Yes, you're listening to The bened Skin Show ninety
Speaker 1: seven point one The Eagle. Thanks for rolling with us today.
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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Ben.
Speaker 4: There's a new documentary series on Peacock it's four episodes.
Speaker 4: It's cald SNL fifty and it's really it's less than
Speaker 4: a document worry about the entire show is it is
Speaker 4: a separate thing. So the first episode is about the
Speaker 4: five minute auditions that people have in front of Lorn
Speaker 4: and his assistance and kind of them watching it back
Speaker 4: and reliving it, and it's very crazy and it's hidden
Speaker 4: footage no one's ever seen.
Speaker 2: The second how long is it? About an hour? Each
Speaker 2: episode is about an hour, gotcha.
Speaker 4: The second one is focusing in on the writers and
Speaker 4: it's just a week in the life on that show,
Speaker 4: and it is it's unbelievable. I mean, that show is
Speaker 4: not for everyone. It's clearly very stupid. The hours and
Speaker 4: the third one is about looking into the history of
Speaker 4: the cow Bells sketch and I don't know how they
Speaker 4: decided that was the one they were going to do
Speaker 4: a full documentary on, but they did, and it's so good.
Speaker 2: I thought you guys would love it.
Speaker 4: So you're saying this particular doc about just as sketches
Speaker 4: like an hour long?
Speaker 2: Yes? Wow.
Speaker 4: So the fourth episode I haven't seen yet is about
Speaker 4: season eleven, which was when Lorn came back. So Lauren
Speaker 4: left the show for a while. The show got bad,
Speaker 4: and Lauren came back and saved it from Dick eversol. Yes,
Speaker 4: so like, I haven't got there yet, and I'm sure
Speaker 4: it's great. The first two are great, but this one
Speaker 4: is one. I thought this will translate to radio really well,
Speaker 4: and I think you guys will love it. I also
Speaker 4: want to well, I want to play you the first
Speaker 4: clip first and then I'll set something up because I
Speaker 4: think everyone knows the sketch. If you don't, it's hard
Speaker 4: to believe anyone would not know what it is, right.
Speaker 4: I think that's why they chose that yeah documentary, because
Speaker 4: it's referenced all the time. Yeah, it happened in April
Speaker 4: of two thousand and here's Will Ferrell describing, you know,
Speaker 4: his idea. Will Ferrell joined the show in nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 4: but here's him describing how he got the idea to
Speaker 4: do the sketch.
Speaker 5: I remember listening to that song as a kid in
Speaker 5: the car.
Speaker 6: It's a great song and I loved the song first,
Speaker 6: and then I heard the cowbell second. It's the perfect
Speaker 6: calibration of loud enough but not too loud.
Speaker 5: Don't listen to me but I'm playing the cowbell here,
Speaker 5: and I ain't had the thought even as a kid,
Speaker 5: what is the life of the guy playing the cowbell?
Speaker 4: As he was in high school, you know when he
Speaker 4: thought of this idea, and then eventually as he started
Speaker 4: doing like some sketch comedy in college, he added it
Speaker 4: to is his room, he had a you know, what's
Speaker 4: the board where you'd pin you know, little notes on it.
Speaker 2: What they call this dream board? Back up?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know what they call it. You get
Speaker 4: a thumb vision board. We were just talking about a
Speaker 4: bulletin boarder bulletin board.
Speaker 2: That's the idea. Is bulletin board. We're not talking about
Speaker 2: the Oprah. Yeah, Will aspire to have.
Speaker 4: So he added that, and then eventually once he got
Speaker 4: on SNL, he sat down and wrote it. Now you're
Speaker 4: going to learn more about that in a second. This
Speaker 4: is what really got me jumping off the couch last night. Look,
Speaker 4: we've known the Frankeles for a long time, Mark and
Speaker 4: Scott Frankel and Jean Burkett, right, and Frank Frankel and Frank.
Speaker 4: But the character that Will Ferrell is playing in the
Speaker 4: sketch where he's beating the Cowal. The guy's name is
Speaker 4: Gene Frankel. What, Yes, did I not know that? And
Speaker 4: I didn't know that either, So listen to the genesis
Speaker 4: of this.
Speaker 5: So who is the cow bell genius that inspired Will's
Speaker 5: leap of fame seventies rock legend Gene Franklin. I'm Jane
Speaker 5: Frankel anyway, Gene Frankel's totally made up.
Speaker 7: Oh, Gene is fictional.
Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
Speaker 4: Are you lying to me? I should have done my homework.
Speaker 4: It's Chris Catan. He didn't know Jeene Frankles totally made
Speaker 4: up name.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: The guy in the documentary that plays Gene Frankel. The
Speaker 4: actual guy is Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Speaker 4: the drummer who looks a lot like Will Ferrell.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 4: So I thought of Jean Burkett and her buddy's the
Speaker 4: Frankles pretty much the entire time I was watching this.
Speaker 4: Now when they write this sketch up? He wrote it
Speaker 4: in October of ninety nine. Okay, it didn't air till
Speaker 4: April of two thousand. October ninet nine, he wrote it.
Speaker 4: Norm MacDonald was the host, okay, of the show. It's
Speaker 4: like I think normally great to play the Christopher Walken
Speaker 4: role that we know it now, and that character is
Speaker 4: Bruce Dickinson, right.
Speaker 2: Bruce Dickinson.
Speaker 4: You will learn more about Bruce Dicketson in a minute,
Speaker 4: because it's not your guy from Iron Maiden, right, right.
Speaker 4: So you write it and then it goes to table
Speaker 4: read on Wednesday in front of the entire staff, a
Speaker 4: huge room, and they read forty sketches. And here's the
Speaker 4: genius of Will Ferrell though during the table and here's
Speaker 4: what he wrote in it.
Speaker 5: Norm MacDonald had come back to host. That's when I
Speaker 5: wrote the sketch initially, and Norm was playing the producer character.
Speaker 1: The way the table read works, long, huge table and
Speaker 1: everyone's got scripts in front of them.
Speaker 8: We would read anywhere from thirty five to forty sketches,
Speaker 8: and anywhere from eight to twelve would get picked.
Speaker 7: So the name of the sketch, which I did know,
Speaker 7: is called recording session.
Speaker 8: He didn't want to lead the joke, so I'm sure
Speaker 8: he wasn't going to put cow Bell sketch, so you
Speaker 8: knew cal Bell was coming.
Speaker 4: Lorne Michaels reached the stage. Directions cut to interiors studio
Speaker 4: at the drums, ratio with bass, Parnell's lead singer with guitar,
Speaker 4: catad with guitar, Will with woodblock.
Speaker 7: Huh interesting. I had no idea it was written in
Speaker 7: as woodblock.
Speaker 2: I gotta have more woodblock, woodblock.
Speaker 7: I don't think it rolls off the tongue. Yeah, I
Speaker 7: just wouldn't work.
Speaker 6: We would not be talking about the sketch today if
Speaker 6: it was Christopher Walk and saying I need more woodblock.
Speaker 2: It has never written as Cowbell who.
Speaker 1: Wrote Sol wrote it wood block?
Speaker 7: Wow?
Speaker 2: Now he not know what a cow bell sounded like.
Speaker 4: I think he did, And I think this is where
Speaker 4: it gets a little unclear, as if he did that
Speaker 4: on purpose. So cow Bell is not the joke in
Speaker 4: the room, and then you'll find out that it doesn't
Speaker 4: make that episode.
Speaker 2: So he's like, okay, throws it in the drawer and
Speaker 2: we'll get it out later.
Speaker 4: So I'm wondering if he just wrote it like that
Speaker 4: to hide it, or if he really was going with woodblock.
Speaker 4: You'll find out he rewrites it clearly. But this is
Speaker 4: what I did not know about that night, the Christopher
Speaker 4: Walking episode. What do you think outside of that Christopher Walking?
Speaker 4: You remember the Foo Fighters meme. It's that episode. It's
Speaker 4: that same episode, and they have the because this is
Speaker 4: all archived footage that no one's ever seen, because Lauren's
Speaker 4: never really gave it all out. You see them talking
Speaker 4: the food Fighters at Christopher Walking talking and you hear
Speaker 4: what Dave Grohl did to Christopher Walking before they're ever
Speaker 4: alive on the air.
Speaker 5: And Norm was funny and everything like that. But just
Speaker 5: as it goes that that week there was it just
Speaker 5: wasn't picked. So it was shelved for two or three months.
Speaker 5: I remember thinking, oh, it's a little too weird for
Speaker 5: the room. I'll just hold on to it. Maybe they'll
Speaker 5: be a better fit. When Christopher Walking came back, I
Speaker 5: rewrote it with Walking in mind.
Speaker 7: We got to meet him for the first time that
Speaker 7: Saturday Night Live musical guest.
Speaker 4: Fighter.
Speaker 3: Before introducing the band, he asked me if the accent
Speaker 3: was on Foo or Fighters.
Speaker 9: It's the emphasis who cool fighters with cool fighters?
Speaker 7: I said, I think for Fighters.
Speaker 3: And so We're standing there on the stage as we
Speaker 3: were about to go to air, and I'm like.
Speaker 7: He's gonna do it, He's gonna do it, He's gonna
Speaker 7: do it. Pin drop silence, and he says Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 9: Ladies and Gentlemen Fighters.
Speaker 7: They did it as a joke.
Speaker 2: It's so funny.
Speaker 4: No, it was Dave Grohl did it to two yeah,
Speaker 4: and it's like it shows Dave Grole like they're standing
Speaker 4: on the stage like they're cutting promos or something and
Speaker 4: what's the excellent So.
Speaker 2: That's amazing that that happened.
Speaker 4: But it's also pretty perfect that that sketch not only
Speaker 4: ended up with Christopher walking, but the only other band
Speaker 4: I can think of that would appreciate the sketch more
Speaker 4: than the Foo Fighters is Tenacious d right with like
Speaker 4: their love of classic rock and all those stories.
Speaker 2: Like it's so perfect that they were the band that.
Speaker 4: So featured in this documentary heavily is Josh home of
Speaker 4: Queens of the Stone Age?
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 4: Because when they were on Satay Night, I Will Ferrell
Speaker 4: came out and started playing cow bell with him. Amazing,
Speaker 4: but he's no one knows, is that what they think?
Speaker 4: So it might have been that a little sister is
Speaker 4: one of those. So this is where this has been
Speaker 4: the last one for this segment. Then we'll carry it
Speaker 4: over because they have the eight o'clock dress rehearsal. So
Speaker 4: this sketch is written, but no one knows you've done
Speaker 4: at a table read. You can't fully act it out
Speaker 4: around a conference table in front of all those people.
Speaker 4: And a big part no way of knowing. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: a big part two. And this kind of happens with
Speaker 4: a lot of Will Ferrell's stuff. But a big part
Speaker 4: of the funniness is just the dumb look on his face. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but like the eagerness of his body language is really
Speaker 4: like the main part of the funny. It's Christopher Walkins's
Speaker 4: voice saying that dumb thing.
Speaker 1: And then and the proximity, the physical humor because he
Speaker 1: puts his body so close to you and it's like
Speaker 1: spacing issues and yeah, it's just so eager.
Speaker 2: And I think there's also this element of that show.
Speaker 4: And we did this sometimes here like okay, I got
Speaker 4: some here about don't don't click it, don't click on
Speaker 4: the lake or don't see it, don't you react to
Speaker 4: it live on the air.
Speaker 2: Right, we're all.
Speaker 4: Week you're writing the sketch, but you still want to
Speaker 4: hide something. So here's the dress rehearsal. How that went down.
Speaker 7: Eight o'clock.
Speaker 5: You began a two hour dress rehearsal.
Speaker 8: It's do or die for the writers and the cast members,
Speaker 8: because if the sketch doesn't go well in dress, you're screwed.
Speaker 7: It gets cut.
Speaker 9: All right, guys, I think we're ready to lay this
Speaker 9: first track down. By the way, my name is Bruce Dickinson, Yes,
Speaker 9: Bruce Dickinson, And I got to tell you, fellas, you've
Speaker 9: got what appears to be a dynamite sound.
Speaker 7: Everything wasn't as heightened as it was in the air show.
Speaker 2: I was surprised of how low key.
Speaker 5: He was playing it.
Speaker 7: He wasn't bringing the full walk into it.
Speaker 5: He doesn't do full walking, and I don't think I'm
Speaker 5: as physical at the.
Speaker 3: Time, I don't think anyone had any faith that that
Speaker 3: sketch would air.
Speaker 5: Not to mention, the sketch played in the corner of
Speaker 5: the studio that we would affectionately call can.
Speaker 8: Alley, it was actually doomed from where they put it
Speaker 8: on the floor.
Speaker 4: And I've heard Dana Carvey say this up and they
Speaker 4: show you very well on this documentary the layout of
Speaker 4: the studio, what goes into the architecture of creating these
Speaker 4: sets and painting and all that stuff that goes into it.
Speaker 4: But there's home base where the monologue is, and the
Speaker 4: first sketch is usually not on home base, it's on
Speaker 4: the other side. And they went to s cannaley for this,
Speaker 4: so they're like, we're not getting on, Like we're in
Speaker 4: the corner. The audience can barely see us, so you
Speaker 4: can't get a good applause. So they're not thinking that
Speaker 4: it's going to make the show. But I'll tell you
Speaker 4: next if it did or not.
Speaker 2: Oh that's juicy, all right.
Speaker 1: Deep dive into one of the greatest SNL sketches of
Speaker 1: all time from the birthday Boy Kevin Turner.
Speaker 2: Coming up next.
Speaker 7: Part two of that